Bill Maher called Boston police officers “unprofessional” on Friday for shooting at the boat where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding even though it turned out he was unarmed.

“I agree that we shouldn’t have given the kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information. We wanted to take him alive. We all agree with that.… there could’ve been bombs out there, there could’ve been an accomplice. So we wanted to take him alive. If you agree with that then what the cops did there was unprofessional. That’s called contagious fire,” Maher said on HBO’s “Real Time.”

According to reports, no gun was found inside the boat after Tsarnaev was captured, although the Boston Police commissioner had earlier said that cops had exchanged fire with the suspect.

Maher also said that America is becoming a “police state.”

“I want to talk about the police, who I am a supporter of… Look at this, I mean if this is what you have – why don’t you invade a country? …. I mean go up to Canada – take their oil… This country is becoming a police state. And it is very troubling to me,” Maher said, while showing pictures of police officers patrolling the city and searching for Tsarnaev.

Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother Tamerlan, 26, are accused of being behind the bombings. Tamerlan was killed last week during a police pursuit of the two brothers.

I don't understand people who are worried America is becoming a police state, but than say things like this : “I agree that we shouldn’t have given the kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information"

Miranda rights don't exist only when you are told them. We always have them. Taking away Miranda rights is a step towards a police state.

They didn't take away his Miranda rights if they don't use what he told them in court against him, did they?

I don't understand people who are worried America is becoming a police state, but than say things like this : “I agree that we shouldn’t have given the kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information"

Miranda rights don't exist only when you are told them. We always have them. Taking away Miranda rights is a step towards a police state.

They didn't take away his Miranda rights if they don't use what he told them in court against him, did they?

Yes, whatever information he said before the rights are spoken are not used in court. But as an American citizen he still has them, and by not saying them you don't take them away. And there should be no notion that he should be stripped of them.

Yes, whatever information he said before the rights are spoken are not used in court. But as an American citizen he still has them, and by not saying them you don't take them away. And there should be no notion that he should be stripped of them.

If memory serves, Miranda rights are a prophylactic in nature, and designed to ensure that actual Constitutional rights are not violated. Failure to give the Miranda warning does not mean anyone's Constitutional rights have been violated, but it does mean that statements made by the suspect may not be used against him because he may have been ignorant of his Constitutional rights.

Don't see how an American citizen can be stripped of his Constitutional rights, and I think some of the bozos in Congress who were saying the guy should be tried as an enemy combatant are out of their minds.

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"I love signature blocks on the Internet. I get to put whatever the hell I want in quotes, pick a pretend author, and bang, it's like he really said it." George Washington

Yes, whatever information he said before the rights are spoken are not used in court. But as an American citizen he still has them, and by not saying them you don't take them away. And there should be no notion that he should be stripped of them.

Doesn't seem to me he was stripped of anything, really. Not unless they end up allowing his statements in court.

So, do you want constitutional protections against a police state to be stripped from American Citizens?

It's because of pussies like you that these vermin thrive here. Should our troops read Miranda rights to the Taliban they shoot in Afghanistan? If a North Korean spy had been caught bombing American targets, would you worry about his rights?

THESE PEOPLE ARE OUR ENEMIES, YOU IDIOT. CITIZENSHIP WAS NOTHING MORE THAN COVER. **** THEIR RIGHTS.

So if this had all gone down in Dallas or St. Louis or Atlanta what do you think happens? All the citizens go out with their handguns and shotguns and join the cops in turning over every leaf of their neighborhood?

They stick scoped rifles out of their 2nd floor windows to shoot at the Tsarnaev brothers while they are involved in a gunfight with the cops?

I find it absolutely amazing that the right wing lunatic fringe has turned the events of that week into a way to bash the shit out of Boston and Massachusetts. Un-****ing-believable. You don't even seem to give a damn about the victims or the fact that the perps were throwing homemade bombs around. Completely ridiculous.

Amno called Bill Maher and his panel the right wing lunatic fringe.

Congrats my friend, you have become a DC zombie. You're Merle from TWD, munching on roadkill and leaping menacingly at his weeping brother.

BTW, I think Maher had it pretty much wrong on this one.

BTBTW - just funnin' you bud. It just struck amusing how little anyone thinks about the big picture when extremist labels are thrown around..

Yes, whatever information he said before the rights are spoken are not used in court. But as an American citizen he still has them, and by not saying them you don't take them away. And there should be no notion that he should be stripped of them.

You clearly have no idea what the Miranda warning is, or how it is used.

I don't understand people who are worried America is becoming a police state, but than say things like this : “I agree that we shouldn’t have given the kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information"

Miranda rights don't exist only when you are told them. We always have them. Taking away Miranda rights is a step towards a police state.

I actually kinda got a chuckle out of them saying that they didn't read him his Miranda rights. I mean, doesn't he ****ing know them? He could sit there and demand a lawyer and say absolutely nothing else until they gave him one. Just because they didn't read them to him doesn't mean they go away. And by not reading them to him they just make everything he says inadmissible in court.

For the record, I'm commenting on the folks on here, not Maher, whose show I've never watched in my life.

Mostly I'm just trying to defend Boston because I really doubt that things would have been THAT much different in any big city in the "heartland".

I don't think too many people in this part of Texas would willingly allow cops to search their home. No way, forget it. That's one of the considerable cultural differences between Mass. and TX. Alex Jones lives like five miles from my house and thinks the movie Red is real and the helicopters are a coming.

I tend to agree with Maher as well. If the reports of the kid having the gun are false then all those gunshots that are on tape make no sense. Why would they shoot all those rounds at the boat when he's just laying there? I will tell you why. Payback. Very understandable and very human but also unprofessional.

I don't understand people who are worried America is becoming a police state, but than say things like this : “I agree that we shouldn’t have given the kid his Miranda rights because he probably had information"

Miranda rights don't exist only when you are told them. We always have them. Taking away Miranda rights is a step towards a police state.

Perhaps butthurt will soothe when one realizes that 'given him' can me 'recite to' instead of 'bestow upon.'